Looking for a healthy and fun after school snack for the kids? Try this fun little octopus, which they’ll be sure to love.

Ingredients:

1 slice cheese (any kind)

8 baby carrots

1 red grape

2 black beans or raisins

Directions:

Slice your piece of cheese into a large, oval head with a bit of a neck on the bottom. Lay that on the plate towards the top. Next, slice your baby carrots into 5-7 circular sections each. Throw all of your little carrot circles into a small bowl. Arrange eight legs coming out of the octopus’ body, starting with the larger sized carrot rounds and ending the leg with the smaller sized carrot rounds. This will look more realistic. Add two black bean eyes, and slice a thin section off of a red grape that has been sliced in half. Place onto your octopus to look like a happy smile.

Do you struggle to provide dinners for your child that are nutritious and yet appealing? Maybe you have a picky eater. Maybe you need some ideas for those nights when just the kids are eating.

Here at Creative Kid Snacks, we focus a lot on healthy lunch ideas for kids, as well as lots of healthy snack ideas, but today we have a healthy dinner with chicken, fresh carrots, red pepper, corn, avocado, and cheese. They will not be able to resist! (By the way, if you’re interested to see our lunch version of a hot air balloon, here it is).

Ingredients:

1/2 grilled chicken breast

3.4 c corn

1/4 diced red pepper

2 t guacamole

1 baby carrot

1 piece string cheese

Directions:

Grill or saute a chicken breast. We love to rub this spice on our chicken before cooking. Cook a 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick chicken breast 4 minutes per side on medium high heat. After removing from grill or saute pan, let sit for 2 minutes, then cut into shape for a balloon basket. Next, slice rounds off of a piece of string cheese and arrange off to the side of the plate to look like a cloud. Slice two thin strips from the remaining portion of string cheese for strings coming up from the basket. Create the balloon by adding your heated corn to the plate in a circular shape. Sprinkle the red pepper in with the corn. Next, slice a baby carrot lengthwise into a thin section. Cut in half width-wise to look like a person in the balloon. Slice 4 little strips from the remaining carrot and place two next to the little body to look like arms, and two along the bottom of the plate to look like tree trunks. Add a dollop of guacamole atop each carrot, and your dinner is complete.

Nutritional Benefits of this Plate:

This plate is full of lots of wonderful, whole foods we want our kids to eat!

Baa Baa, Black Sheep is a common nursery rhyme that first appeared in Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book published in 1744! This was a collection of English nursery rhymes, and Baa, Baa Black Sheep, along with Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, Old King Cole, and more, have been beloved songs and verses chanted by many of us throughout the centuries. When I became a mom, I made sure to have a copy of the classic nursery rhymes in my library for my own kids to learn and appreciate these little pieces of history.

My two children had the privilege of knowing most of their great grandparents for some of the early years of their life. I always marveled at the way both great grandparent and great grandchild could recite their favorite nursery rhymes together and how great grandpa was taken back to his childhood as my children were experiencing theirs.

Baa Baa, Black Sheep

Ingredients:

handful of fresh blackberries

1 slice white cheese (mozzarella, provolone, swiss)

2 baby carrots

2 stalks celery

Directions:

Place blackberries in a large circle in the center of the plate. Add a few extra blackberries where a head would be as you will use this area as a surface on which to lay the face. Slice a large teardrop along with two small teardrop shapes out of the white cheese. Place those on the head area to define the face and ears of your sheep. Next, slice a baby carrot in half and then into 4 thin strips out of one of the halves. Arrange the 4 strips of carrot below the sheep’s body to look like legs. Take your knife and carefully slice a little smile out of your remaining half of a baby carrot. Place the smile on the face. Use two tiny blackberry fruit bits for eyes, and finish the look by adding small chunks of celery to look like the grass in which the sheep is grazing.

Nutritional Benefits of this Snack

Blackberries contain Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Manganese and fiber. They are one of the top 10 antioxidant foods, known to contain polyphenols that helps reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. They also help to reduce inflammation. Read more here.

Celery is a fantastic source of fiber, and it is said that a person burns more calories eating and digesting celery than the celery gives you. It’s a “negative calorie” food!

Carrots contain beta carotene and lots of Vitamin A which helps with eyesight. Nutrients in carrots are also linked to great skin, cleansing of the body, and lowered risk of stroke and heart disease. See more here.

3-2-1 Blastoff! What kid wouldn’t love a rocket ship going off into space for their lunch?

Awhile back I guest posted over at Build a Menu sharing this Rocket Ship Lunch. I made a new one that is even better! Today’s plate incorporates carrots, yellow pepper, fresh turkey breast, a high-protein wrap, and greek yogurt. I made this lunch for my girls several times and each time I did, they were so excited! I think it is one of their favorites!

Ingredients:

1 whole grain tortilla wrap (I use the Ole Xtreme wellness Multi-Grain. It has the highest protein and fiber bang for your buck)

2 baby carrots

3 thin slices yellow bell pepper

1 T yogurt (any kind – I used greek for the high protein content)

To make Rocket Lunch:

Assemble your turkey wrap by placing some mayo or miracle whip,turkey breast and any other desired elements into tortilla. Roll as you would a burrito. Slice off one end completely so you have a straight bottom edge for your rocket. For the top of the rocket, slice your wrap into a point shape. Take a small portion of the tortilla you cut off and slice two thin triangles to place on the sides of your main wrap as shown above.

Next, slice a baby carrot into wheels. Use two wheels for windows on the rocket. Slice another baby carrot in half lengthwise and cut about 1/3 off of the top of each half to create a straight edge. Place one half carrot in the center beneath the rocket, and slice your other remaining half in half again. Arrange carrots with two thin slices of yellow bell pepper as shown. Now you have your flames coming from the rocket!

Finally, it’s time to make your smoke trail and stars. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt into a plastic bag. Snip off a tiny corner of the bag, and use the bag to pipe little stars all around the rocket as well as little trails of smoke beneath the rocket.

*I’ve mentioned before that I can get away using any kind of yogurt when it becomes a design piped on a plate. Although my kids would never reach for a cup of unsweetened Greek yogurt from the fridge, they lick it all up when it’s served on a creative plate like this! *

If you enjoyed today’s snack about outer space, you might like our Solar System snack as well!

Butterflies are a sign of new life. Spring always gets me motivated to get outside, enjoy nature, and celebrate it with our food, too! My daughter has been very in to butterflies lately, and she has even requested a rainbow butterfly birthday party! We’ve already made delicious fruit butterfly for a snack, and today’s butterfly will be a lunchtime butterfly treat.

Butterfly Quesadillas

I have two daughters. I made one quesadilla with a 8-inch tortillas, (I love to use the whole wheat or multi-grain tortilla wraps), and cut it into 4 equal portions. Place two quesadilla “wings” on your plate.

Create the body by slicing the end off of some beautiful green grapes and laying them on your plate to look like a body.

Thinly slice a baby carrot into strips to use for antennae, and place two blueberries on top of the carrots to complete the look.

If you feel so inclined, you could even use a food marker to draw a happy face on the top grape for your butterfly.

To create Rapunzel, I sliced 12-14 red grapes in half lengthwise. I arranged them on the plate to look like her dress. Making the dress first helps to scale the head, feet, and arms. Next, cut a slice of white cheese (I used mozzarella) into shape for a neck, feet, arms and head. I wasn’t ambitious enough to create hands with tiny little fingers using cheese, so I hid her arms behind her hair. For her lips I used a tiny slice of a grape, two tiny currants for eyes, and a small slice of cheese for her nose.

Next, boil a small handful of thin spaghetti noodles until cooked. You can make a quick cheese sauce for it if desired, or just use a little olive oil or butter and place it right onto the plate.

Finish the scene with some celery grass and a couple orange tulips made from carrots.

I loved the scene in the movie where Rapunzel feels the grass and the earth for the first time. This lunch was pattered after that.

When Spring starts to peek around the corner after Winter finally ends, it’s fun to embrace the feeling of new life, warmth, brightness, and outdoor fun. Nothing says new life to me like a butterfly! The butterfly snack we have for you today is refreshing, super healthy, and beautiful for the kids to enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 piece string cheese. (You can also use just half of one, sliced lengthwise).

8-10 green grapes, sliced in half

3 strawberries

1 baby carrot

Directions:

To make this guy, simply place a piece of string cheese in the center of the plate. Next, slice your green grapes in half and lie them on the plate as the outline of the butterfly’s two wings. Slice strawberries and fill in the outline formed by the grapes. Next, slice two round slices from the end of a baby carrot. Slice two thin sticks, and slice a tiny bit off each stick. Arrange antennae as shown, place two tiny carrot bits on the string cheese for eyes. Enjoy!

Continue the Fun with a “READ.PLAY.EAT” activity

READ.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is such a classic story book! Just like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an Eric Carle staple I’ll bet most of us have in our bookshelves (if not memorized) and read often. I know it’s been a favorite for my girls.

The story is told of a caterpillar that hatches from an egg, grows, and eats and eats and eats until he is so full that he becomes big and fat. He builds his cocoon, stays inside for more than two weeks, and becomes a beautiful butterfly. It’s the classic metamorphosis story.

PLAY.

Create a “beautiful butterfly” with your child that they can play with over and over again. Follow the simple steps shown below:

My girls love to make these, and they only take about 5 minutes. I love them because they aren’t messy, and they don’t involve too much skill on the parent’s part! We have quite a collection, and my oldest daughter Grace plays with hers often. She loves to hold the butterfly by the stick and swing him around to flap his wings.

It is also fun to make each one unique and different. One thing we have done is make a butterfly for everyone in the family. The kids have fun deciding which colors, patterns, and designs best reflect each person. So fun!

EAT.

Make a healthy caterpillar for lunch!

Take a large strawberry and slice to create his head. Next, create his eyes by using little bits of pineapple cut into circles and place sliced green jelly belly candies in front. Form his body with green grapes , carrot feet, raisin mouth, and ham antennae. He is walking on an oatmeal ground and taking in the cheddar cheese sun!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is, in my eyes, one of the singe most important events of all time. On Easter, we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, conquering sin and death, and paving the way for all who believe in him to have forgiveness and everlasting life.

After Jesus’ death, his body was placed in a garden tomb by a couple of his disciples. Three days later, Mary Magdelene went to the tomb to anoint the body with spices and oil, and saw the stone rolled away from the tomb entrance. As they entered the tomb, they saw an angel who said to them, “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” (Mark 16:6 NIV).

Resurrection day proved that Jesus was who he said he was. The son of the most high God, able to defeat even death, so that we who believe may live! Amen!

This Easter snack will help you to teach the story of Jesus’ resurrection to your children. Read the story from Mark 16 or John 20, (or read it from the Children’s Bible – here’s the one we use), and then make this snack together.

To make this snack, start with the tomb. Slice an apple near the core on one side so you have a nice large chunk of apple. Then slice that in half so that there is one round “stone” piece and another that looks like an empty tomb. Easy! Next, thinly slice a baby carrot and place the strips around the tomb to look like beams of light. Add some celery grass underneath the tomb. (After all, the tomb was in a garden)!

Next, slice a hard boiled egg in half to use as the angel’s body. Carefully pop out the yolk of one of the halves and place it on top as the angel’s head. Slice two small traingles off of the half of boiled egg you didn’t use for the body, and place those next to the body as arms (well, sleeves). Add some pretzels as wings, and use a small almond for his smile and tiny brown sprinkles for his two eyes. I normally use raisins for eyes, but this guy’s face was too small for that!

You now have a delicious, nutritious, and educational bible story for lunch. Enjoy!

Does your child watch Thomas the Train? Have you gone on a train ride for a fun family adventure recently? We love to ride the train just to go a few towns over, as a fun way to get to a relatively nearby destination. This past Christmas, we rode the train from our local station 3 stops down to go see a fabulous lights display in a nearby town. We had a blast!

Let’s make a choo-choo train for lunch today!

I have been loving using wraps lately as an alternative to sliced bread. I can cut it into neat, fun shapes and the girls love the texture. We like these:

These particular wraps contain more protein and fiber than many of the other brands available at my local grocery store. I’ll take any protein boost I can get out of a typically protein-lacking item like bread (or in this case tortilla wraps).

To make the train

First, I made a wrap using fresh turkey breast and some mayonnaise. I recently learned of an awesome home-made mayo recipe that I will try and implement in an upcoming snack and share here!

Once the wrap is made, I sliced in into two rectangular sections, then sliced a triangle out of the remaining portion. This triangle will be the top of the top of the train.

Arrange the train on the plate as shown below, then add some wheels. I used sliced baby carrots. For the front window, I sliced a grape in half and then slice one rounded edge off to look more like a window.

I spooned a bit of cottage cheese to look like steam coming from our little steam engine.

To complete the look, add some pretzel sticks below the train to look like tracks. A happy sun in the sky creates a happy choo-choo train.

Look how yummy this lunch looks for the kids! It’s an adorable lunch that the kids will love to eat!

I'm Amy. One of my passions is serving my two little girls healthy, wholesome food in unexpected ways. Lunch time has become a time of learning, imagining, and bonding for us as we use great food to create little works of art... Read More…

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Please feel free to use any of these ideas with your children at home, school, church, or anywhere you are inspired to make fun of lunch.
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